


The Arc of Ascension, Edda 9: According to My Design

by bzarcher, solarbird



Series: Of Gods and Monsters [35]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Female Character of Color, Female Characters, Financial Issues, Follow the money, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Character of Color, Oasis (Overwatch), Oasis Soverign Wealth Fund, Power Play, Questionable Religion, Religion, Sneaky Dealings, Stock Manipulation, Trans Sombra (Overwatch), Utopaea (Overwatch), Vishkar Corporation, corporate shenanigans, corporate takeover, influence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 04:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15040346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird
Summary: The new gods have risen, ready, at last, to grapple with a world of heroes. Moira O'Deorain herself has been reborn, now made one of the creations her previous self meant to rule, and she works with her wife - the goddess Mercy - and their ensemble of new deities to remake the world, toimproveit... for everyone.Unhappiness in Eastern European operations reaches Vishkar CEO and Chief Architect Satya Vaswani's attention, in the form of a bizarre protest, and she takes action to make it stop.Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Ascensionis a continuance ofOf Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Creation, a side-step sequel toThe Armourer and the Living Weapon. It will be told in a series of eddas, sagas, interludes, fragments, texts, and cantos, all of which serve their individual purposes. To follow it as it appears,please subscribe to the series.





	The Arc of Ascension, Edda 9: According to My Design

_[Late April, 2078]_

Satya frowned at the proposal that had been forwarded from the management of one of the newest residential towers in Kyiv.

“Durga?" She glanced to her assistant, sitting near her, in her office. "Why was this sent to my attention?”

Said assistant looked over, confusion on her face. “I’m sorry, which one…?” Satya highlighted the proposal, turning the hard light screen so she could read it, and comprehension dawned. “Ah. That.” 

Satya nodded, turning the display back. “A request for a dedicated space as a place of worship is allowed under policy. There’s no reason to ask for my direct approval - the management there should have handled this.”

“It’s a bit more complex than that,” Durga explained, a nervous edge to her voice. “Ma’am, have you read _why_ they want the space?”

“It said the space would be dedicated for use as a shrine.” Satya frowned as she read down the page. “I saw no reason to...look... _ah._ ” She reached the second page of the proposal, and began to drum her fingers against the top of the desk with increasing agitation as she read.

“ _Me?_ Why would anyone…” _Has someone told them?_

Durga grimaced. “I think you should keep reading.” 

She did. The language went from obsequious fawning to dry, biting sarcasm within a few sentences, the insults less and less veiled until it was a blatant attack on Vishkar and herself as the representative of same. 

Durga waited for her reaction, clearly uncomfortable. Satya realized she must have read this entire... _travesty_... before passing it on to her. 

Satya wanted to ask her to leave, to call Sombra, to scream in frustration, to make them _stop_ , but she needed to be a leader. She had to steel herself. This... incident... had a root cause. They always did. A seed of chaos, disrupting the harmony and order they worked so hard to create. A seed they particularly could not afford now, given upcoming plans nearby.

“Durga,” she finally asked, “what _else_ is going on in Kyiv?” 

Durga opened her padd and drilled down through several operating reports, then sent the relevant one to the display. “There’s been discussions of a rent strike - because the decontamination and reclamation efforts in Pripyat took more resources than expected, the EMEA management team decided to raise relocatee rent by 20% across the board.”

Satya frowned. “I had ordered rent kept consistent to make our housing more attractive - and affordable - than the alternative of remaining in unsuitable areas. This violates those directives.”

“The regional VP signed off on it as a necessary expense.” 

Satya hummed and tapped the desk again while she considered that, then closed the window.

“The request for this... shrine... is denied, but..."

"Ma'am - it's technically within their rights."

She frowned. "Then it is _delayed_ , pending further review. And I would like to convene a meeting of the board and all regional vice presidents to discuss the rent issues this coming Tuesday.”

Durga nodded, making notes on her padd. “Should I arrange a teleconference?”

“No,” Satya said as she stood. “All attendees are to come here.” _I was going to inform them at the next board meeting - this will do just as well._

Durga stood as well, giving her a respectful nod. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll send the notices out immediately.” 

Satya smiled gratefully to her. She really was a quite excellent assistant. “Thank you, Durga. I am going to take a walk in the garden for a few minutes, and then we can go over any other urgent business.”

“Of course.”

\-----

“As many of you know,” Satya addressed the boardroom, “a major focus of my work since becoming the Chief Executive Officer has been to ensure Vishkar is offering safe, sanitary, and _affordable_ housing around the world - particularly in some of the communities where we have previously met resistance or other difficulties.”

Most of the meeting attendees maintained their air of cautious concern, their studied and careful business interest with a hint of boredom, as she spoke. They knew that _something_ was up - an in-person all-hands said that all too clearly - but so far, whatever shoe the meeting presaged had not yet dropped.

Still, a few shifted and coughed - all representatives from the EMEA group, and Eastern Europe in particular.

 _I must ask Durga to review the rest of the European developments for irregularities_ , she thought, categorising the noise. _Perhaps I should consider a personal inspection, as well._

“I recognize that certain areas have suffered setbacks, or unexpected expenses,” the CEO continued, “but our budget for the year also contains a great deal of leeway to compensate for them. So I find any decision to increase rents in relevant areas using such expenses as a justification... curious. Particularly when it escalates to the point that a strike is being threatened. Vishkar stands for _order_ , after all, and neither broken promises nor rent strikes are _orderly_.” Several members of the board nodded their approval at the last sentence.

The VP who had approved the rent hikes cleared his throat. “With all respect, Miss Vaswani, members of the board - our relocatee rates are below market for value, even with the increase. Accordingly, we felt it would be more appropriate to raise rent, and evict anyone who refused to pay, than deal with the inevitable damage to budgets and P&L statements. After all, we _do_ have to show a profit for our shareholders.”

“I agree, Mr. Mlynarcyzk.” Satya looked cooly at him, waiting for the inevitable moment where he would flinch. “But even without that, your statement would be well into the black. And there are more forms of profit than strict financial accounting.”

Before he could speak again, Satya turned to face the rest of the VPs. “And as your majority voting shareholder, I expect you to handle this situation. _My_ way.”

"Wait," the CTO said, behind her. "What now?"

She couldn’t help her little smile as she turned to face the board. "I take it none of you have read the draft quarterly shares report I prepared? _I_ am our majority voting shareholder."

The assembled board erupted into a furor, all of them attempting to speak and object at once. She let them go on a bit, smiling serenely.

"That's simply not possible," insisted the CFO, after the board started getting itself back into order. "The number of outstanding shares held by sovereign wealth funds alone..."

"Ah!" Satya nodded, and smiled. _Finally,_ she thought, _I am presented with a coherent question_. She opened the board meeting archives.

"Nine months ago, you took action, voting to create a new class of investor shares which paid higher dividends and included preferred-payout options, and issued tens of thousands of new shares on that basis. The price of the preferred-payout shares quickly exceeded that of the voting shares in trading."

She flipped to the next screen.

"Four and a half months ago, you voted in favour of a mixed 1:2 or 1:3 stock split, which would result in either one voting share and one non-voting share, or three non-voting shares of the new class, the latter being designated the preferred option. That split took effect 75 days ago. For obvious reasons, your brokerages agreed they preferred the latter option - as did virtually all major investment firms."

She displayed a series of transaction logs over the table.

"Except for Ms. Patwary, none of you overrode those options."

The CFO turned, looking down the table, stunned. " _None of you...?!_ I thought the whole point was to..." She looked down to her personal PADD, and started running calculations.

"A staggering number of voting shares have been annihilated, particularly by passive holders such as retirement funds and large brokerages. I, of course, ordered my brokerage to make different decisions, as did two silent partners of mine, who have transferred voting control over their shares to me. I also ordered my non-voting shares sold, with proceeds used to purchase all available voting shares."

She displayed a graph showing voting shares, and nonvoting shares, and their relative value. "As you can see, you have all profited substantially by your actions. Far more, in monetary terms, than have I." She smiled, a little, hearing confused whispering from the assembled VPs behind her. "I should take this moment to reassure everyone that no one's positions are in danger, and I have no intention of taking the company private."

Another graph. Patwary ignored it, staring at her padd, having discovered that she, personally, was now Vishkar's largest minority voting shareholder.

"However, in terms of voting shares, well. Between those actions and my completely-exercised stock option compensation package, my partners and I now represent 50.2% of extant voting stock. All of that will, of course, be in the upcoming quarterly shares report, upon which we will be voting next week.”

The board sat, stunned, for several seconds, before diving into the documents to verify the reality of their new situation.

"It's a bloody coup," the CTO said, "and there _will_ be lawsuits."

"That would be highly unprofitable for anyone," Vaswani replied. "And untenable, given that the digital signatures of everyone at this table are on every document, and everyone who might wish to claim a loss has benefited substantially from their actions."

"Again," she continued, "you have lost no shares; your personal net wealth has, on average, doubled by these actions; and your positions on the board are safe; you retain ownership shares. They simply do not vote on board positions, or certain classes of shareholder resolutions. You have suffered no harm from the actions you approved." She put up one final, simple graph, showing her controlling position. "The only change is that the majority of voting shares are represented directly by me."

She turned back to the EMEA regional vice-president. "And I expect that you will act in accordance with _my_ design.”

\-----

Sombra grinned as she handed Satya a flute of champagne. “So, how does it feel to be the most powerful businesswoman in the world?”

News like that board meeting wouldn't stay quiet - the Financial Times headlined the new Vishkar stock configuration overnight. Nonvoting public shares had taken a bit of a dive in London at open, but recovered on a statement saying there were no actual changes in upper management, and Public Relations had their flacks out there pushing that it was largely a technical change, of limited actual import. It wasn't true, but in a way it almost was, and so there were those who believed.

Satya frowned as she took the flute, the bubbles tickling at her nose. “Inaccurate, I believe. Katya Volskaya certainly holds greater influence in Russia, and there _are_ others in similar positions of power.”

Sombra rolled her eyes before she took a sip from her own drink. “C’mon, you know what I mean, _princesa._ You’ve really got control now. Or, well, _we_ do. You can celebrate!”

Satya considered that, then smiled. “I suppose you do have a point. And it is good that we discovered this before the next phase of operations."

"Exactly. See? There you go."

"Still..." she said, a bit of uncertainty in her voice, "I'm not sure what to do about this request for a shrine."

"What, the protest shrine?" Her lover shrugged. "Let 'em have it, if they want it."

"It seems very foolish at this point. I thought it would be withdrawn, but..." She took another sip of her champagne.

"They probably just forgot about it," the hacker shrugged. "Approve it. Put the ball back in their court. See what happens."

"What could _possibly_ happen that would be of any use to anyone?" she asked, finishing the small amount of bubbly she'd put in her flute.

Sombra reached for the bottle, to refill the glass. "Maybe that's what we should find out."

**Author's Note:**

> This is the fifth instalment of _Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Ascension_. To follow this story, [subscribe to the series via this link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024), rather than to the individual works.


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